HARTFORD, Conn. – Down two primary rotation players and battling a pro-Yale crowd just 45 minutes north of New Haven, the University of Pennsylvania battled Yale down to the final game of the final match of the day, falling 5-4 in the College Squash Association (CSA) Potter Cup third-place match on Sunday.
Nick Spizzirri started the day with a 3-0 win, completing team competition for the season a perfect 15-0. After Yale evened the match,
Dillon Huang joined Spizzirri in the 15-0 club, coming back from 2-1 down, surviving a 14-12 fourth game en route to the win.
Omar Hafez followed Huang with Penn's second 3-0 win of the day, upping the Quaker advantage to 3-1. After Yale closed to within 3-2,
Oliver Green, playing for the first time since December, rallied from 2-1 down with an 11-1 fourth game win and got to 10-9 down in the fifth, but could not fight off one final match ball, as Yale tied the match at three.
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the day to open the final wave and were up 2-0 in the final two matches, but the fighting spirit of the Quakers would not make things easy.
First,
Saksham Choudhary showed how he achieved more than 50 wins in just three seasons, rallying for a 3-2 win to level the match at four. In the final match of the day,
Abdelrahman Dweek battled back with wins in the third and fourth games to level his match at two games each, but fell 11-7 in the fifth, as the Bulldogs came away with the win.
With team competition now over for the season, attention shifts to Individual Championships. The participants will be finalized later this week.
Results
- Siow Yee Xian (Y) def. Nathan Kueh – 8-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-6
- Nick Spizzirri def. Maxwell Orr (Y) – 11-5, 11-5, 11-7
- Omar Hafez def. Max Forster (Y) – 11-9, 12-10, 12-10
- Dillon Huang def. Tad Carney (Y) – 11-4, 8-11, 3-11, 14-12, 11-3
- Saksham Choudhary def. Jed Burde (Y) – 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6
- Arav Bhagwati (Y) def. Dana Santry – 11-0, 11-9, 11-4
- Nikhil Ismail (Y) def. Abdelrahman Dweek – 11-7, 12-10, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7
- Eric Kim (Y) def. Shaam Gambhir– 9-11, 11-0, 11-3, 11-3
- Merritt Wurts (Y) def. Oliver Green – 11-7, 8-11, 6-11, 11-1, 11-9
Order of finish: 2, 8, 4, 3, 6, 9, 1, 5, 7
#FightOnPenn
#DontDefer #BetterTogether
